Blog Post

New property investors often ask this question. The answer is actually contained in our FAQs, but to let all our property investors know, here is the position:

The FSA regulates various matters including CIS (Collective Investment Schemes) and OEIC (Open Ended Investment Companies). When we set The House Crowd up we invested considerable time and money with a top legal team (the same team that helped Dave Fishwick set up “Bank of Dave”) to create a legal workable structure that did not require us to be authorised by the FSA. We did consider going through the process of becoming authorised but concluded that to do so would have involved a large extra cost and an even larger administrative burden which would have made it impossible to deliver returns as attractive as we are able to do.

Soon after we started trading the FSA wrote to us and asked us about what we were doing. Â We have, over the last few months, been engaged in correspondence with them. They have reviewed our business model and all our legal documentation and we have answered all their questions. Â They have now acknowledged in writing to us that they are satisfied that how we are operating does not contravene the law and that our business model does not fall under the definition of either CIS or OEIC. Â Therefore, we do not need to be authorised by the FSA to operate.

However, even though we are not FSA authorised, we do everything we can to ensure that all our dealings are as transparent as possible and that investors are made fully aware of the risks as well as the rewards in any property investment. We also ensure your money is protected as far as possible. This is why we set up the process whereby you never pay money directly to us.Â All investment monies are paid to a solicitorâ€™s client account and held there in your name until the property is purchased and your shares are issued. At this point you have a legal share in the company that owns the property and your investment is thus secured.

For those people who need whatever security they feel an FSA regulated investment gives them – we say “sorry, this is not for you”. Â For those who can determine for themselves whether what we offer is attractive for you and understand the risks as well as the rewards, we say ” Welcome to The House Crowd.”